The Problem with Comedy

as someone who has followed or performed as a comedian since the early 1980s, I am faced with a huge conundrum. I don't know

I don't know what to do about the giant alienation that has happened in the last few years. There is a sacredness to the art form that allows and perhaps needs to find it's role as social commentary. Recently, I have been using the image of triangles to bisect the issue and tell that innocuous joke that relieves the tension on all sides of the issue. I have tried desparately to not give my opinion because I can promise you that it will offend someone. It is ironic that a comedian would seek the higher ground and yet here I am...not better but distanced socially, ironically, from huge swaths of people on either sides of the issues. What i see as my role, is to sew together the wound that is gaping right now. to be a peacemaker instead of trying to pull things futher apart. I, who espouse the rant knows that that time may be over. Too , too, too, many opinions...and frankly, I am struggling to find the humour. I have long argued that there is a slow burn going on in this country and I think it has erupted. it is like the noxious gas of a volcanoe, and though probable, probably not tolerable. suffocating and leaderless...what will happen if their cause disappears? And that is an important point actually...As well there is a funding issue where American's are basically financing this project. Do the truckers know that? What are the implications of a "party" being funded by foreigners...or has it always happened? Canada has been under seige for its' entire existence by Continental interests and it makes total sense (to them). I have also argued in the past that Canada is an illusion strung together by a railroad then a highway, a donut shop and Hockey. The chain may be breaking. We are under siege by media, NFL, Amazon deliveries and even Netflix (if you have a VPN). We have begun the process of amalgamation, with not one shot fired. it is an insidious tidal wave of Anschloss(?) with no one at the helm. Jeff Bezos doesn't want our country but he is buying it one 2 day delivery at a time. Because I am in the West, I know that blockades at fairy creek were shouted down by the very people who are parked outside the parliament buildings. The same people who think jobs are better than trees and want to rip the "heads off those fucking hippies" are now doing exactly the same thing...tge same thing...check yourselves...hypocrisy and thiose same said hippers are hating on the truckers...for the same fucking thing...see?

Because I am from the East, it prescribes that I take a position of hatred of the Truckers...I mean as People, it is very likely that I do. Not that I hate truckers but I have grown weary of people who band together and stamp their feet in general...Hatred is easy, Love is hard and memories are longer, How do we negotiate this away? Canada is under siege.

But what is wrong with with Canada? Well for one, as a political pundit, when Trudeau called me to ask should he run again and cash the check of his performance after being robbed of two years of tenure because of a world wide pandemic I said "Justin? you are out of your gourd" He was like a first time homeowner who just found out you could pay off your loans with your mortgage. Never a good idea but where the heart is willing.... Calling that election was poor thinking, somewhere between clueless and a weird form of narcissism that his Father would have pulled off. But alas Justin...you are too much like your mother...or worse? maybe not.

It was a form of arrogance that is independant of policy but as they say...it will bite him in the ass...time will tell but....mark my words...

Because I live on an island, Vancouver to be exact (that should be a province, c'mon PEI hand it over, the magnification of the choices made elsewhere, hit us hard. While I understand scarcity and supply chain issues, this island is under serviced ALL OF THE TIME. I get that things cost more for the privilege of living here but they drill that into us so much that I have a playlist of self help videos on youtube that would a make a contractor sweat. I will do everything for myse;lf and you can stop charging for quotes, k?

Opportunism is rampant. Not capitalism where you get a choice, no, opportunism where you don't get a choice and you pay $1.79 a litre or you don't drive...so I don't drive.

And at the grocery store, I tell my wife that the less volume in the peanut butter jar is a good thing and the savings will be weight loss. Don't worry about weight watchers because they are doing it for us now. it is more on the supply side rather than the demand side.

In the old days, it was us against them, Conservatives against Liberal, Red vs Blue, West against East but now it is Rich against poor (and yes I picked a lower case p). Or moreso, Haves and have nots, an old phrase but today more apropos. It's more like the liberals and conservatives are so similar and together so different than all of us. That axis has really flipped...where North doesn't become South. They become one. but now described by no direction. Like a Greek tragedy, they have awoken the chorus and it sounds like shit. They are mad and they have mobilized and worst, they may not have nothing better to do. So while they are playing ball hockey on parliament hill and are grotesque and badly dressed they can't be ignored. Even though they are wrong in how they do it. what is central to their demands/ because I can assure you it isn't reallt mandates or freedom. I think it is really anti arrogance and anti elitism and centralized government. and they are right...about that. But what they aren't is couthe or proper. They are the underbelly of our world and we ignore them at our peril. and what do I think they are really looking for since the mandate issue could just go away? A leader... A leader. Hopefulliy not just anyone but someone who will tell them where they are right and the same person to tell them they are wrong Me? No, remember, I am not on their side. I am a comedian and I am seeking the middle ground. I am not virtue signalling to be heard by my fellow comics or my university educated folk, or even my family. I am delving through my thoughts so that at the end of this, I can sleep knowing that Canada is back to some normal.

The facts as I see them, are that you cannot win a pandemic, regardless of the facts, science or otherwise, nobody will win this. If we had opened up early the government sucks and if we opened up later, the government sucks. now it should be mentioned that we are the government but don't let that get hinder your fickle feelings. There is no winning where revisionism starts at the first sign of light. Since we are dealing with issues compounded by histrionics and ignorance Kyrie Irving should have been alowed to play, Djokovic was robbed and Kyrie is also right about how flat the Earth is. But there is always that crowd, that referees and keeps score, and gets booed when they call a penalty in the last minute... Toronto Penalty, Dougie Ford, two minutes for delaying the response and a five minute misconduct for arrogance and allegiances to other drug dealers.

Nobody wins a pandemic. Losses abound. They tried to rescue private old age homes, at the expense of the public health system, They allowed unsalaried support workers to go underpaid so they had work two jobs and were identified as the vector for the corona virus, since renamed to protect the brewery (i'm guessing)

I have studied Comedy for those years 40, and the most interesting thing I studied was Buffon or Buffoon, The Buffons would come to town once a year, so grotesque but spoke a truth that rattled the upper class, They were disfigured, rude and extreme saying what no one else had the balls to say. People I would say who are grotesque in that sense might be John McEnroe, Richard Williams (Serena's dad), Don Cherry,and even, yes Donald Trump. The point isn't always about who is saying it but rather why it has to be said...fix that et voila.

I talked about the triangle, the idea that we see the continuum of opinion called the hypotenuse and the comic resides at 90 degrees to that...not in the argument hut socially distanced. Sometimes that is above the issue and sonmetimes it is way below...but we are sacred, even if we don't know ...and I don't.

For a long time Canada has maintained a pretense of being nice and having no identity. Honking isn't nice. But maybe we are growing up and it ain't pretty or nice. Hopefully by the end of this, we will be Strong and Free.

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